CCVT 2004-2005 AGM Report

40 Pages·2006·1.9 MB·English

2004-2005
Annual Report
Canadian Centre for Victims
of Torture (CCVT)
Accredited Member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
Charitable Reg. 13332 7908 RR0001
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Table of Contents

Mandate 4
A Message from the Executive Director 5
A Message from the Chair 6

Report of the Health and Program Committee 7
Report of the Legal Committee 9
Public Education 10
Report of the International Committee 12
Intake and Settlement Program 14
Volunteer Program 15
Children’s Program 16
English as a Second Language and Computer Training Program 18
Board of Directors 19
Financial Report 20
CCVT Programs 22
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CCVT Health Network 23
CCVT Legal Network 24
CCVT Staff 25
Interns and Students 25
CCVT Volunteers 26
Special Thanks 28
Funders: Government and Foundations 30
CCVT Survivors—New Intake and Previous Clients 31
Contact Us 40
Table of Figures

Figure 1: New Convention and Landed 31 Figure 9: Immigration Status 36
Clients by Country of Previous Clients
Figure 2: Previous Convention and 32 Figure 10: Age Category 37
Landed Clients by Country
Figure 3: New Refugee Claimant Clients 33 Figure 11: Marital Status 37
by Country
Figure 4: Previous Refugee Claimant 34 Figure 12: Education 38
Clients by Country
Figure 5: Source of Referrals 35 Figure 13: Employment Skills 38
Figure 6: Gender of New Clients 35 Figure 14:Type of Torture 39
Figure 7: Gender of Previous Clients 35 Figure 15: Client Referral 39
Figure 8: Immigration Status of New Clients 36
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Mandate

"Hope after the Horror"

The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture
(CCVT) aids survivors to overcome the lasting
effects of torture and war. In partnership with
the community, the Centre support survivors in
the process of successful integration into Cana-
dian society, works for their protection and in-
tegrity, and raises awareness of the continuing
effects of torture and war on survivors and their
families. The CCVT gives hope after the horror.
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A Message From the Executive Director
This year has been challenging for anti-torture groups and for human rights advocates in general. The
human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded or grossly abused in every corner
of the globe. Economic interests, political hypocrisy and socially orchestrated discrimination continued to
fan the flames of conflict around the world. The “war on terror” appeared more effective in eroding inter-
national human rights principles than in countering international “terrorism”. The millions of women who
suffered gender-based violence in the home, in their community or in war zones were largely ignored.
The economic, social and cultural rights of marginalized communities were almost entirely neglected.

In 1973 the first report on torture was published by Amnesty International. It found that: “torture thrives on
secrecy and impunity. Torture rears its head when the legal barriers against it are barred. Torture feeds on
discrimination and fear. Torture gains ground when official condemnation of it is less than absolute.” The
pictures of detainees in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, show that what was true 30 years ago remains true today.

The indifference, apathy and impunity that allows violence against millions of women to persist is shocking.
In countries around the world, women suffer many forms of violence including genital mutilation, rape, beatings
by partners, and killings in the name of honour. There are now international treaties and mechanisms, laws
and policies designed to protect women, but they fall far short of what is required. In addition, there is a
real danger of a backlash against women's human rights from conservative and fundamentalist elements.

Sixty years ago, out of the ashes of the Second World War, a new world order came into being, putting
respect for human rights alongside peace, security and development as the primary objectives of the UN.
Today, the UN appears unable and unwilling to hold its member states to account.

At the national level, the ability of the state to protect human rights is in crisis. In some places, armed
groups – warlords, criminal gangs or clan chiefs – hold sway over people’s lives. We need to work harder
for a sober reappraisal of what needs to be done to revive the human rights system and our faith in its
abiding values.

During the past 12 months CCVT has assisted a total of 1039 clients from over 52 countries, providing a
range of therapeutic services. CCVT has collaborated with several agencies at home and abroad to
strengthen the global human rights movement and to hold governments accountable to the international
human rights treaties and conventions. CCVT has provided training on the effects of torture and war to
front line workers, educators, health professionals, External Affairs officers, Foreign Service officers, pri-
vate sponsors, and faith groups. As well, we have received visitors from Germany, Sweden, South Africa,
United Kingdom, United States, Denmark and Russia.

CCVT is considered a pioneer in the rehabilitation of survivors of torture. An achievement of this nature is
only possible because of the engagement and contributions of a broad range of individuals, organizations
and institutions including our donors and funders. CCVT staff, volunteers and board members remained
committed to the needs of survivors and the interests of the Centre. This commitment and boundless
support has made my role as Executive Director easier and rewarding. I am grateful for that.

Mulugeta Abai
Executive Director

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A Message from the Chair
By the time you read this, CCVT would have held its 3rd annual fundraiser entitled, “First Light Celebrations &
Community Leadership and Awards Night” on Thursday November 24, 2005. I hope that this one proves to be an
even greater success than last year’s which was outstanding. This is one way in which we have been attracting
new donors: a delicious meal, great entertainment, very attractive prizes to be auctioned, and dancing
late into the evening. The fundraising committee, under the able guidance of Doug Lehrer, has worked hard to
organize this event. For those of you who have attended in the past, thank you for being part of a fun-filled
evening, knowing that you will have the added satisfaction of contributing to the important work at CCVT.

Thanks to the efforts of our Executive Director, CCVT continues to be financially stable. There have been quite a
few unusual demands on our finances this year, but through our fundraising efforts, as well as our regular and
new donors, we continue to keep our financial house in order. Most charitable organizations in Ontario have
been finding it increasingly difficult to find sufficient grants and funding resources to deliver their programs.
Non-profit organizations must now compete for funding, not only with sister-agencies, but also with for-profit
organizations. To complicate matters further, the number of clients served by CCVT has declined this year,
and one of the major reasons is the Safe Third Country Agreement signed with the U.S. in December 2004.
In order to improve access to CCVT for more survivors, we have begun to focus our efforts in three major
areas: forming partnerships, sharing information with other agencies and educational institutions, and provi-
sion of services to groups using group models. Such strategies will enable CCVT to be better prepared to
face these new realities, while meeting funders’ requirements as well as being responsive to client needs.

CCVT continues to gain international recognition for the high quality of its programs, and its contributions to
research and public education. A member of our staff, Ezat Mossallanejed has written an outstanding book
entitled “Torture in the Age of Fear”. It is an in-depth look at torture, its root causes, methods, victims and
victimizers, and its absolute prohibition under international law. Ezat examines the impact of 9/11, official
justification of torture, erosion of human rights and the right to asylum, the practice of torture by some western
democratic governments, legal instruments against torture and a global overview of the torture of children.

Our staff continue to dedicate themselves to serving our clients. In addition to their excellent counselling services
provided to survivors of torture, our staff have provided training to senior government visa officers assigned to
overseas posting, training at conferences here at home and overseas, e.g. Uganda, and training also to others
who work with survivors of torture in the school and health systems. They continue to soldier on despite many
of the stresses that are built into their jobs. In the coming year, CCVT’s Board of Directors, through its Personnel
Committee, in partnership with the staff and management, will undertake a major review of organizational and
operational procedures with the view of promoting a workplace that is relatively stress-free. While care for the
clients that come to CCVT is our priority, we are also concerned about the welfare of our care givers.

As always, all our successes this year were made possible through the efforts of our many dedicated
volunteers, who work closely with our outstanding staff. Sometimes we forget that our Board Directors are
volunteers. We have had a group of outstanding directors whose contributions to our monthly Board meetings
and Committee meetings reveal a dedication and professionalism that we are proud of. There will be a few
departures this year, and we wish them well, and thank them for their unselfish efforts over the years.

Hari Lalla
Chair, Board of Directors

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Report of the Health
and Program Committee
The role of the Health Committee is to develop guidelines for the assessment of clients, to over-
see the provision of health related services to clients and to provide health related educational
events. The work of the committee involves relating to the Legal Committee and other committees
to ensure that the approach to services integrates health care with the legal and social concerns
of clients.

During the past year the Health Committee made presentations at Transcultural Rounds held at
Toronto Western Hospital in October 2004, the Canadian Psychiatric Association meeting held
November 2004 in Montreal, the Psychiatric Grand Rounds at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto in
February 2005, and at the International Conference on Global Trauma in Toronto in May 2005. In
order to facilitate such presentations the committee, led by Dr. Lisa Anderman and Dr. Debra
Stein, took the initiative of developing a poster which documents CCVT’s comprehensive approach to
serving victims of torture. The poster is a great resource which is useful for both conferences and
displays.

This year CCVT staff members have also made health centred presentations at numerous confer-
ences including: Healing from Trauma organized by SYNerGAIA Danish Rehabilitation Centre
(November 12-13, 2004 in Hering, Denmark), Community Crisis Response: Looking Through a
Cultural Lens organized by the city of Toronto Community Safety Secretariat (June 9, 2005 in Toronto,
Ontario), and Health, Equity and Diversity: Local Realities & International Perspectives (June 10-12,
2005 in Toronto, Ontario). Staff lead professional development sessions for Family Medicine residents
at the North Hamilton Community Health Centre (Hamilton, Ontario, May 12, 2004), Family Medicine
residents at the Scarborough General Hospital (April 6, 2005), and doctors, nurses and social
workers of St. Joseph’s Health Care Victim Support Program (April 14, 2005). CCVT provided a
display of its services at the University of Toronto International Health Program’s community
information day (January 28, 2005) and the University of Toronto Peace Week Networking Fair
(November 9, 2005).

The Health Committee organized a presentation by Dr. Molyn Leszcz of Mount Sinai Hospital on
“Group Process and Effective Mental Health Treatment Teams”. As well, thanks to the initiative of
Dr. Lisa Anderman, Dr. Patience Onyut, Director of the Ugandan branch of vivo International,
spoke to CCVT staff about her work with Somali and Eritrean refugees in Uganda.

Health Committee member Dr. Donald Payne is the Canadian representative on the IRCT
(International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims) Council, and attended IRCT Council
meetings in Antalya, Turkey and Helsingor, Denmark.

Members of the Health Committee have been called to do CCVT related work in their personal
capacity. Dr. Donald Payne testified at the Royal Commission on Mahar Arar on the issue of torture.
An affidavit by Dr. Payne was presented to the Federal Court on the problem of “reverse order
questioning” of refugee claimants, a procedure instituted by the government in which refugee
claimants are cross-examined on their claim before they have had a chance to present their history
orally at their hearing.

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In addition to all the above mentioned responsibilities and activities, members of the Health Network have
continued to provide medical-legal assessments and treatment for CCVT clients. The recruitment of new
members to the Health Network remains vital for the enhancement of CCVT health related work and activi-
ties. We are pleased to have Dr. Debra Stein presently doing a placement at CCVT as part of her psychiat-
ric residency program. She is providing much-needed mental health care services for survivors of torture.

The Health Committee looks forward to another year of productive work.

Co Chairs: Dr. Donald Payne Dr. Lisa Anderman
Members: Dr. Rosemary Meier and Dr.Debra Stein
Staff Support: Dr. Mohamed Ahmed and Dr.Teresa Dremetsikas
CCVT Client with a member of the Health Network, Dr. Jill Blakeney
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Report of the Legal Committee
The CCVT Legal Committee is composed of four lawyers (in different fields of refugee/immigrants and human rights),
two CCVT Board members and two CCVT staff members who bring the legal problems of the CCVT clients to the attention
of the Committee. The Committee recruits its members from the CCVT Legal Network and volunteers as well at least
one member from both the Board and the staff. The Legal Committee’s mandate is to improve the legal services offered
to CCVT clients through policy analysis, legal support and research. It also provides recommendations to the CCVT Board.

During the past year, the CCVT Legal Committee has been involved in the following areas of policy support:

Canada’s Compliance with the Convention Against Torture (CAT)
The Legal Committee helped CCVT prepare to give feedback at a conference, held in Ottawa, on Canada’s compliance
with the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The conference was attended by twenty representatives from the
Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Heritage,
the Canada Border Security Agency and the RCMP.

Feedback to the Parliamentary Standing Committee
With the committee’s support, the CCVT staff liaison spoke before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Citizenship
and Immigration and provided the Committee with feedback on the Citizenship and Immigration Act with special attention
to survivors of torture and CCVT clients. This was followed by the official report of the CCVT to the chair of the Standing
Committee.

CCR Task Force
The CCVT staff member of the Legal Committee joined an ad-hoc task force of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR)
to prepare reports to the UN Human Rights Committee (Fall 2005) on Canada’s compliance with the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Clients’ Immigration Issues
The Legal Committee provided CCVT with advice for client in the areas of immigration limbo, family separation, inadmissibility
problems and acceleration of landing process for vulnerable groups. One such case involved a 75-year-old senior citizen
who has been a CCVT client since 1998 and possesses a Minister’s permit. He is suffering from multiple diseases
including severe and chronic heart problems. He has been left with no government health or financial assistance.
Through the Legal Committee, CCVT worked with a legal clinic, found a lawyer for him and collaborated with his lawyer.
The greatest success we had was in the case of family reunification of a client whose son was entrapped in Iraq.
Through the efforts of the Legal Committee the boy was transferred to Jordan and within a few days came to Canada.

Working with Canada Border Security Agency (CBSA)
With the help of the Legal Committee, CCVT staff made effective connections with the Canada Border Security Agency
in order to advocate for clients who had been deemed inadmissible to Canada and were facing deportation or removal
orders. In some cases, CCVT succeeded in changing the condition of the client’s release. The greatest success was in
the case of a stateless client who had come to Canada from Africa in 1989. He had been reporting to the Enforcement
Centre every month for the last 12 years. This year, with the help of the Community and Legal Aid Services Programme
(CLASP) and the CCVT Legal Committee, he received status as a landed immigrant.

Legal Aid Ontario
The CCVT staff continues to act as a member of the Legal Aid Ontario’s Advisory Committee and keeps the Legal Com-
mittee posted about new developments especially those that may affect CCVT clients.

Clients in Detention
The Legal Committee is following the conditions of Immigration detention centers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
We work with a large coalition under the umbrella of the UNHCR legal office in Toronto to monitor the situation of deten-
tion centers in Ontario and provide CCVT services to detainees, when it is possible.

Chair: Sil Salvaterra
Members: Douglas Lehrer, Susan J. Woolner, Nancy Elliot, Ezat Mossallanejed and Thilaga Jeganathan
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Public Education
The function of the Public Education Committee is to contribute to the implementation of the organizational
mandate to raise awareness of the continuing effects of torture and war on survivors and their families and to
work for their protection and integrity. The committee strives to increase public awareness of torture, its effects
and its global dimensions and to contribute to the development of human rights theory and practice. CCVT is a
learning centre on issues related to torture and human rights. Activities include research, the production and
distribution of learning materials, onsite training and educational programs for staff, volunteers, students and
the community, as well as public forums and presentations - locally and globally. During the past year, the
committee focussed particularly on the need for absolute prohibition of torture, the principle of non-
refoulement to torture and holistic rehabilitation of survivors of war and torture.

Training and Education

The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 brought with it new challenges for human
rights and service agencies like CCVT. We have to deal with ever-increasing rates of fanaticism of all kinds –
religious, nationalistic, and other as well as racism, xenophobia and the outright call for torture. Terrorism of
the worst kind is also showing its ugly face everywhere. Canada and other countries have implemented secu-
rity legislations that might lead to restrictions on people’s civil and human rights. The impacts of the new rules
and regulations on non-citizens, specifically survivors of torture, can be irreparable. All these prompted CCVT
to quadruple its efforts towards public education. Following are some of our activities during the past year:

•
A presentation to more than 120 members of Amnesty International and activists from various commu-
nity agencies on the need for absolute prohibition of torture.

•
A workshop to a group of 25 artists at an art gallery for immigrants and refugees in Toronto. We shared
our experiences of helping newcomers, especially survivors to settle in Canada.

•
A two-day workshop on torture, health, and human rights to the managers and consular officials of the
Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. This was followed by a second session with Consular officers
in Ottawa several months later.

•
The Mount Sinai round table discussion for residents in the Psychiatry Department and provided a
workshop titled “Community Approaches to Working with Trauma: Lessons from the Canadian Center
for Victims of Torture.”

•
In early Spring a group of students and teacher from the McMaster University visited CCVT. We pro-
vided them with a workshop on “Working with Victims of Torture: CCVT programs and services.”

•
A presentation at York University, Centre for Refugee Studies on the devastating impacts of terrorism
on survivors of torture.

•
A workshop for the family physicians of the Scarborough General Hospital.

•
A workshop to the care-givers at St. Joseph Health Care in Hamilton titled “Community Approaches to
Working with Trauma: Lessons form the Canadian Center for Victims of Torture.”

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